At the start of class, I collected your journals. I’ll review them this week and return them to you in next week’s lesson.

Subcultures and Subgroups: We went through the differences between subcultures and subgroups, and you came up with your own subgroups in Japanese cultures. Subcultures exist within a dominant culture and include a large group of people who identify with a set of values different from the dominant cultures (e.g. Ainu, Ryukyu, Zainichi). A subgroup also exists within a dominant culture, but they are dependent on that culture. They often include occupation subgroups (e.g. gyraru, otaku, geisha).Stereotypes and Prejudice:We also leaned the difference between stereotypes and prejudice. Stereotypes are naïve images (often not true) of a group form through one’s personal value system. Prejudice, however, is a negative attitude towards a group, which is not based on objective facts. Be aware that our cultural values and personal bias (e.g. stereotypes and prejudices) affect how we observe other cultures. Cambodian Writing Exchange Project:As part of the intercultural awareness component of our course, you'll be participating in a writing exchange with one of my Cambodian students who attend the Bayon English Academy in Siem Reap.

We had a short slide presentation on Cambodia and the challenges for students to get an education. We also went through the Letter Writing Guidelines. In next week's lesson, you'll have time to discuss letter #1 before you submit it to me.